''Laetiporus'' is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

edible mushroom Edible mushrooms are the fleshy fruit bodies of numerous species of macrofungi (fungi that bear fruiting structures large enough to be seen with the naked eye). Edibility may be defined by criteria including the absence of poisonous effect ...

s found throughout much of the world. Some species, especially ''

Laetiporus sulphureus ''Laetiporus sulphureus'' is a species of bracket fungus (fungi that grow on trees). Its common names include sulphur polypore, sulphur shelf, and chicken-of-the-woods. Its fruit bodies grow as striking golden-yellow shelf-like structures on tre ...

'', are commonly known as sulphur shelf, chicken of the woods, the chicken mushroom, or the chicken fungus because it is often described as tasting like and having a texture similar to that of

chicken meat The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated subspecies of the red junglefowl (''Gallus gallus''), originally native to Southeast Asia. It was first domesticated around 8,000 years ago and is now one of the most common and w ...

Description

Chicken of the woods Fungus JEG7298 Jegan

Individual "shelves" range from across. These shelves are made up of many tiny tubular filaments (hyphae). The mushroom grows in large

brackets A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. They come in four main pairs of shapes, as given in the box to the right, which also gives their n ...

; some have been found that weigh over 45 kilograms (100 pounds). Young fruiting bodies are characterized by a moist, rubbery,

sulphur Sulfur (American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphur (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth spelling) is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundance of the chemical ...

-yellow to orange body sometimes with bright orange tips. Older brackets become pale and brittle almost chalk-like, mildly pungent, and are often dotted with beetle or slug/woodlouse holes. The name "chicken of the woods" is not to be confused with another edible

polypore Polypores, also called bracket or shelf fungi, are a morphological group of basidiomycete-like gilled mushrooms and hydnoid fungi that form large fruiting bodies called conks, which are typically woody, circular, shelf- or bracket-shaped, ...

, ''Maitake'' (''

Grifola frondosa ''Grifola frondosa'' (also known as hen-of-the-woods, in Japanese, ram's head or sheep's head) is a polypore mushroom that grows at the base of trees, particularly old growth oaks or maples. It is native to China, Europe, and North America. It ...

'') known as "hen of the woods/rams head” or with ''

Lyophyllum decastes ''Lyophyllum decastes'' is a species of fungus in the family Lyophyllaceae. It is known as the clustered domecap in the United Kingdom and the fried chicken mushroom in North America. The basidiocarps (fruit bodies) are agaricoid (gilled mushroo ...

'', known as the "fried chicken mushroom".

Taxonomy

Phylogeny

Phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organisms based on empirical dat ...

analyses of

ITS ITS, its or it's may refer to: Language * It's, an English contraction of ''it is'' or ''it has'' * Its (pronoun), the possessive form of the pronoun it * Itsekiri language (ISO 639 language code its), a language found in Nigeria and the Niger De ...

, nuclear large subunit and mitochondrial small subunit rDNA sequences from a variety of North American species have delineated five distinct

clades In biology, a clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach to taxonomy ...

within the core ''Laetiporus'' clade: *Conifericola clade: contains species that live on

conifer Conifers () are a group of conifer cone, cone-bearing Spermatophyte, seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the phylum, division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a sin ...

s, such as '' L. conifericola'' and '' L. huroniensis''. All of the other tested species grow on

angiosperm Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed within a fruit ...

s. *Cincinnatus clade: contains '' L. cincinnatus.'' *Sulphureus clade I: contains white-pored '' L. sulphureus'' isolates. *Sulphureus clade II: contains yellow-pored ''L. sulphureus'' isolates. *Gilbertsonii clade: contains '' L. gilbertsonii'' and unidentified Caribbean isolates. In addition, phylogenetic clades have been identified from

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

, and

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

Species

*''

Laetiporus ailaoshanensis ''Laetiporus ailaoshanensis'' is a species of polypore fungus in the family Fomitopsidaceae. It is found in southwestern China, where it grows on ''Lithocarpus''. The species was described as new to science in 2014 by Baokai Cui and Jie Song. It ...

'' B.K.Cui & J.Song (2014) *''

Laetiporus baudonii ''Laetiporus baudonii'' is a species of polypore fungus in the family Fomitopsidaceae The Fomitopsidaceae are a family (biology), family of fungi in the order Polyporales. Most species are parasitic on woody plants, and tend to cause Wood-deca ...

'' (Pat.) Ryvarden (1991) *'' Laetiporus caribensis'' Banik & D.L.Lindner (2012) *''

Laetiporus cincinnatus ''Laetiporus'' is a genus of edible mushrooms found throughout much of the world. Some species, especially ''Laetiporus sulphureus'', are common name, commonly known as sulphur shelf, chicken of the woods, the chicken mushroom, or the chicken ...

'' (Morgan) Burds., Banik & T.J.Volk (1998) *'' Laetiporus conifericola'' Burds. & Banik (2001) *''

Laetiporus cremeiporus ''Laetiporus cremeiporus'' is a species of polypore fungus in the family Fomitopsidaceae. It is found in cooler temperate areas of China and Japan, where it grows on logs and stumps of hardwood trees, especially oak. The basidiocarp, fruit body o ...

'' Y.Ota & T.Hatt. (2010) *'' Laetiporus discolor'' (Klotzsch) Corner (1984) *'' Laetiporus flos-musae'' Overeem (1927) *''

Laetiporus gilbertsonii ''Laetiporus gilbertsonii'' is a species of polypore fungus in the family Fomitopsidaceae. Taxonomy It was one of three new ''Laetiporus'' species published in 2001, which were distinguished genetically from the common ''Laetiporus sulphureus' ...

'' Burds. (2001) *'' Laetiporus huroniensis'' Burds. & Banik (2001) *'' Laetiporus miniatus'' (P.Karst.) Overeem (1925) *'' Laetiporus montanus'' Černý ex Tomšovský & Jankovský (2009) *''

Laetiporus persicinus ''Laetiporus persicinus'', commonly known as the white chicken mushroom, is a species of fungi in the genus ''Laetiporus''. Taxonomy It was first described scientifically by Miles Berkeley and Moses Ashley Curtis in 1853 as ''Polyporus persici ...

'' (Berk. & M.A.Curtis) Gilb. (1981) *''

Laetiporus portentosus ''Laetiporus portentosus'' is a species of polypore fungus in the family Fomitopsidaceae, found in South America, Australia, and in the North Island and northern South Island of New Zealand. Name ''L. portentosus'' is known in Māori language, ...

'' (Berk.) Rajchenb. (1995) *'' Laetiporus squalidus'' R.M.Pires, Motato-Vásq. & Gugliotta (2016) *''

'' (Bull.) Murrill (1920) *'' Laetiporus versisporus'' (Lloyd) Imazeki (1943) *'' Laetiporus zonatus'' B.K.Cui & J.Song (2014)

Etymology

The name ''Laetiporus'' means "with bright pores".

Distribution and habitat

The sulphur shelf mushroom is most commonly found on wounds of trees, mostly

oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

, though it is also frequently found on

eucalyptus ''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of more than 700 species of flowering plants in the family Myrtaceae. Most species of ''Eucalyptus'' are trees, often Mallee (habit), mallees, and a few are shrubs. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalyp ...

yew Yew is a common name given to various species of trees. It is most prominently given to any of various coniferous trees and shrubs in the genus '' Taxus'': * European yew or common yew (''Taxus baccata'') * Pacific yew or western yew ('' Taxus ...

sweet chestnut The sweet chestnut (''Castanea sativa''), also known as the Spanish chestnut or European chestnut, is a species of tree in the family Fagaceae, native to Southern Europe and Asia Minor, and widely cultivated throughout the temperate world. A ...

, and

willow Willows, also called sallows and osiers, of the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 350 species (plus numerous hybrids) of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions. Most species are known ...

, as well as

s in some species. ''Laetiporus'' species are

parasitic Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives (at least some of the time) on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The ent ...

and produce brown rot in the host on which they grow. It sometimes comes back year after year when the weather suits its sporulation preferences. From late spring to early autumn, the sulphur shelf thrives. This fungus causes a brown cubical rot and embrittlement which in later stages ends in the collapse of the host tree, as it can no longer flex and bend in the wind. Chicken of the Woods Laetiporus sulphureus

Chicken of the Woods Laetiporus sulphureus

Chicken of the woods is found growing on or at the base of dead or dying hardwood trees; most commonly on oak but also cherry or beech. It can also be found on dead conifer stumps. Chicken of the woods has been known to fruit on living trees as well. It typically grows from spring to early autumn.

Uses

The mushroom can be prepared in most ways that one can prepare

. It can also be used as a substitute for chicken in a

vegetarian Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the Eating, consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects as food, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slau ...

diet. Additionally, it can be frozen for long periods of time and retain its edibility. In certain parts of

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

and

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

, it is considered a delicacy. Laetiporus sulphureus dish 2010 G1

In some cases eating the mushroom "causes mild reactions ... for example, 'swollen lips' or in rare cases nausea, vomiting, dizziness and disorientation" to those who are sensitive. This is believed to be due to a number of factors that include allergies to the mushroom's protein or toxins which are only somewhat stable at high temperatures. As such, many field guides request that those who eat ''Laetiporus'' exercise caution by only eating fresh, young brackets and begin with small quantities to see how well it sits in their stomach. ''L. sulphureus'' has a potent ability to inhibit staph bacteria (''

Staphylococcus aureus ''Staphylococcus aureus'' is a Gram-positive spherically shaped bacterium, a member of the Bacillota, and is a usual member of the microbiota of the body, frequently found in the upper respiratory tract and on the skin. It is often posi ...

''), as well as moderate ability to inhibit the growth of ''

Bacillus subtilis ''Bacillus subtilis'' (), known also as the hay bacillus or grass bacillus, is a gram-positive, catalase-positive bacterium, found in soil and the gastrointestinal tract of ruminants, humans and marine sponges. As a member of the genus ''Bacill ...

''.

References

External links

*
Mushroom-Collecting.com - ''Laetiporus''
{{Taxonbar, from=Q11158661 * Wood-decay fungi Edible fungi Meat substitutes Polyporales genera Taxa named by William Alphonso Murrill Taxa described in 1904 Fungi used for fiber dyes